This invention relates to fishing reel loading and unloading devices and more particularly, it concerns an improved device for supporting any of several sizes of line spools on which fishing line is conventionally supplied in proper position for loading or unloading various types of fishing reels without twisting the line.
The average sports fisherman is aware of the importance of loading a reel with line free of twist in order to avoid line tangling in bait casting practice. Since fishing line is conventionally supplied on line spools having centrally apertured end flanges, conventional or level wind spools may be loaded very simply without twisting the line by supporting the supply spool for rotation on an axis parallel to the axis of the conventional reel and cranking the reel to transfer the line from the supply spool to the reel. However, if the reel to be loaded is a spinning reel in which the line is wrapped by a revolving bail about a stationary spool, the supply spool from which the line is transferred must be aligned axially with the reel spool. Traditionally reel loading operations have required two people, one to wind the reel and one to hold the supply spool from which the line is being transferred to the spool. In loading conventional or level wind reels, for example, the person handling the supply spool may do so simply by inserting a pencil or other stick-like member through the apertures of the supply spool and achieve the desired tension in the line as it is payed onto the reel by using his fingers to impose a drag against rotation of the supply spool on the pencil or other spindle device.
In the loading of spinning reels, however, where the supply spool must be held stationary and in axial alignment with the reel being loaded, considerable manual dexterity is required by the person holding the supply spool to allow the line to be payed axially off of the supply spool under any drag. For this reason and also to avoid the need for an assistant in loading spinning reels, line spool supports have been commercially available and which function to support a line spool from a fishing rod in axial alignment with the spool of a spinning reel also supported from the fishing rod. Such devices may include a revolving bail by which appropriate tension is imparted to the line as it is being loaded onto the spinning reel but in general, no provision is made for unloading line from the reel. As a result, a fisherman faced with a situation in which he must change the line on his reel, must discard the line previously loaded on his reel in order to load the new line.
A highly sophisticated reel loading and unloading apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,026,059 issued on Mar. 20, 1962 to G. F. Dennler. The apparatus disclosed in the Dennler patent is particularly well suited for both loading and unloading both spinning reels and level wind or conventional reels by virtue of a rod mounted swiveling post or standard from which a line spool spindle may be supported either in axial alignment with a spinning reel or axially parallel with a level wind or conventional casting reel. Also a crank is provided by which the empty line spools may be used for reel unloading operations. The principal difficulty with the apparatus of the type disclosed in the Dennler patent is that it represents a relatively complicated assembly of components adding both to manufacturing costs and complex manual adjustment during use.